I don’t really leave the house that often, mostly to walk the dog, but I don’t then cuz it’s a huge open air space.
I do on the bus because of how confined it is and how many people use/touch it, but besides that I have no idea.
Do you always have to wear a mask in these places? Or just when there is a covid spike?
How do you even know when there is a covid spike for that matter?
What do you mean? That is the exact, most important case where you should use a mask. I've done 3 years of college in person since the CDC gave up on the COVID lockdown and masked religiously since the beginning, have not caught COVID in college once. I don't think it would've been possible without masking given all the data about the effectiveness of masks.